1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a embroidery cloth presser installed on a presser bar of a sewing machine, and more particularly to an embroidery cloth presser suitable for a sewing machine with a cloth presser mechanism that maintains a predetermined presser height, depending on the thickness of a cloth without moving up or down in synchronization with up-and-down motion of a needle.
2. Description of the Related Art
In conventional embroidery sewing machines, a cloth presser mechanism that presses a cloth to be embroidered moves up and down at a timing synchronized with up-and-down motion of a needle to move an embroidery frame while a cloth presser is elevating from a cloth surface (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-58360).
With the cloth presser mechanism thus operated, the cloth presser lowers onto the cloth surface to hold the cloth while the needle is being inserted into the cloth and elevates when the needle separates from the cloth, allowing the cloth to be smoothly moved.
On the other hand, in recent years, a sewing machine has been proposed which automatically adjusts the presser foot height of the cloth presser. Thus, unlike a conventional cloth pressing mechanism of moving a cloth presser up and down,
for embroidering purposes, sewing machines have also been proposed which have a cloth presser mechanism for lowering the cloth presser onto the cloth surface depending on the thickness of the cloth to be embroidered and maintaining the presser height constant so as to exert an appropriate pressure sufficient to avoid hindering movement of the cloth.
However, a bottom surface of the conventional embroidery cloth presser is compressed against the cloth so that the bottom surface and the cloth are flush with each other as in the case of a presser foot member 4 described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-58360, and thus, a needle thread is sandwiched between the bottom surface of the embroidery cloth presser and the cloth. This may hinder movement of the embroidery frame.
Furthermore, FIG. 6 shows the state of an embroidery cloth presser 1a and a needle thread Ta in which, when the embroidery frame moves a long distance in order to move from a currently sewn block of a pattern to the next block of the pattern to be sewn, a seam of a link formed by the needle thread Ta on a cloth Ca so as to tie both pattern blocks together, that is, a cross-over thread, is cut by an automatic thread cutter (not shown in the drawings) and sewing is then started. However, as shown in FIG. 6, the cross-over thread of the needle thread Ta is sandwiched between a bottom surface 14a of the embroidery cloth presser 1a and the cloth Ca. Thus, disadvantageously, the needle thread Ta, otherwise drawn into an underside of the cloth Ca when a needle 2a is inserted into the cloth Ca, remains on the embroidery surface without being drawn into the underside of the cloth Ca.
An object of the present invention is to solve the above-described problem and to provide an embroidery cloth presser which prevents the needle thread from being sandwiched between the embroidery cloth presser and the cloth to allow the embroidery frame to move smoothly and which also prevents the inappropriate draw-in of the needle thread, that is, prevents the cross-over thread of the needle thread resulting from long-distance movement of the embroidery frame from remaining on the embroidery surface.